Just call him Clint.

The Whitehorse Minor Hockey Association's newly-minted head coach, Clint Mylymok, told the Star he prefers to be on a first-name basis with his players following last night's first Mustangs hockey tryout.

The 41-year-old arrived in Whitehorse this week, and hit the ice for the first time during the Atom Mustangs tryout at the Canada Games Centre.

Born in London, Ont., Mylymok grew up with his family near Orange County, Calif. where he soon found his other sporting love – surfing.

Mylymok would eventually return to Canada and earn his BA at the University of Western Ontario. He then went on to hold a number of positions in the Canadian Hockey League, Western Hockey League and East Coast Hockey League.

His start in coaching came nine years ago, after his twin brother Jeremy became involved with the management of the Idaho Jr. Steelheads.

Mylymok said he was tired of behind-the-scenes work, and took his first job behind the bench for a change of scenery.

"The first thing I learned as a coach was to pay attention and ask questions,” he said. "I'm always learning and soaking up knowledge.”

After a handful of years working with his brother, Mylymok moved to Jr. A in 2009, and went on to win Coach of the Year honours with the Superior International Junior Hockey League's Dryden Ice Dogs in his first year behind the bench.

He pointed to the success of his initial player recruits as the reason behind the prestigious award.

"The better you recruit, the better you are as a coach,” he said.

"Five of six of my recruits that season finished the year as my top scorers.”

After two straight trips to the league finals, Mylymok took a job as an assistant coach with the Notre Dame Hounds in Wilcox, Sask.

Mylymok said while his playing career is "not even worth writing about,” he grew up a goalie while his twin brother played defence.

"I covered up his mistakes,” Mylymok chuckled.

The coach said he has been impressed with the facilities offered at the Canada Games Centre and added he was looking forward to the opportunity to create a uniform hockey program for all of the WMHA's divisions.

He does not anticipate being behind the bench for a specific team this season, but will oversee all of the rep team coaches.

"I have an opportunity here to help mentor coaches,” he said. "I'm here to bring fresh ideas and introduce new ideas.

I'm a detail guy when it comes to coaching. What they're looking for is consistency between all levels.

"I love coaching, but I'll still get to mentor players and coaches.”

Mylymok said he doesn't coach a standard system, saying he prefers to evaluate player talent first, and then plan strategy from there.

He also said travel teams and the house league system share equal importance to him.

Martin Lawrie was the chair of the review and selection committee that brought in Mylymok. He said Mylymok's varied hockey experience made him a great candidate for the position.

"One of the things we really liked about Clint is he was still involved with minor hockey through the Notre Dame program, which is, quite frankly, as world class as you're going to get,” Lawrie said today.

"He had some very good experience in U.S. minor hockey as well, which were two very attractive things for us.”

Lawrie said despite many strong candidates, Mylymok's wide range of hockey background was the mix the association was looking for.

"We just got a good feel from him,” he said.

WMHA president Carl Burgess said both the Yukon Government and Community Development Fund helped bring Mylymok into the fold.

"Clint's main job will be as coach of coaches, help certify, put a program together for the house league, and grow our spring and summer program,” Burgess said.

The association is still looking for a head coach for the Atom Mustangs, as well as coaches for the Mustang B teams and house league.

"We're always looking for coaches and trying to find ways to train and certify coaches,” Burgess said.

Last night's Atom Mustangs tryout marked the first of many rep hockey ice times. The Peewee, Bantam, Midget and Female Mustangs tryouts all begin this week, and run until Sept. 15.

More than 30 players hit the ice last night, with the same number of parents watching carefully in the stands.